iTunes 4.0.1 = ass
So Apple updated iTunes yesterday with a new version that disallows users to share each other's playlists over the Internet.
Playlist sharing was introduced with the 4.0 version, and as a function through Rendezvous, it works swimmingly well -- anyone on your local network can see whatever playlist(s) you've chosen to share and can listen to them on your computer, from their own system.
It was an undocumented feature of this original release that you could do the same through the Internet, too -- all you needed to do was to know the IP address of the target computer.
Well, that's understating it a bit. If you were sharing your playlists, you had to know how to open a port on whatever firewall you were using to connect to the Internet, through your router or whatever. But eventually pirates figured out that you could download a stream to your own system, and the process was ripe for abuse.
So Apple closed this gap by removing this feature all together, making it only possible for users on a local network to share their files. Presumably, it'll be easier for most of them to just rip copies of MP3s to disk or CD-R than it will for them to go through the trouble of streaming and downloading.
I personally think that this is all a losing battle against piracy. Kazaa, Limewire, iTunes 4.0 -- it doesn't matter. Just like someone who's desperate and predatory enough will break into your house and steal your TV, or hold a knife against your throat in a dark alley and take your wallet.
Ultimately, technology can't police human nature. It's just a crying shame that human nature has to be like that at all.
Comments
true,true,true
Posted by: Politic-oholic | October 27, 2003 08:05 PM